Month: December 2025

Tuesday the 16’th of December

One more final to give, two sets of grades to calculate and turn in, and some other chores to do.

Ok, it is now Thursday the 18’th and grades are in. I’ll probably make a couple of supplementary videos to help them with their weak areas.

Emotionally, the past few days were a roller coaster, much of it my doing.

Here are the walks:

December 12: commuter walk (2 miles)
December 13: 8.2 miles in increasingly awful conditions: 2:38:09 (19:24 pace) on campus loops.

December 14 (after basketball game): 2.27 commuter
December 15 2 mile commuter (snowy)
December 15 2 mile commuter (yuck)
December 16: Markin;lane 1 for mile 1, lane 2 the rest of the way. 50 laps: 1:26:42 for 6.25 (13:52) 14:23, 14:01, 13:50, 13:41, 13:37, 13:30, 3:34
December 17 (yesterday) 5k commuter somewhat slick
December 18 (today)6.23 at 16:42: damp; very few slick spots.

Yes, it was cold and snowy.

Weight workouts:

Sunday; some straight bar deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225
Wagon Wheel: 10 x 250

Monday: pull ups (very cold) sets of 7 (one sloppy set of 10)
bench: 10 x 134 Swiss, 3 sets of 6 x 150
high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 115, 5 x 110

Wednesday: pull ups: 9 sets of 5, one set of 6-7 trying to keep my legs together and not “cheat” by contacting the uprights
Bench: 3 sets of 10 x 134 Swiss
High incline: 10 x 94, 2 sets of 5 x 115
Wagon wheel: 3 sets if 10 x 200

Other: I went to the on campus “keep busy” basketball game vs. D3 North Central. The game wasn’t close (as expected) 86-53. But it was interesting to sit next to someone who did marathons and knew about McNaughton Park. And lots of guys got to play. Fan reaction was mixed.


Good, old fashioned anger

I didn’t sleep all that well last night and wondered if it would affect my workout.

But I had some good, old fashioned anger in me and I did ok in pull ups and on the bench press..save set 3.

pull ups (snow shovel recoveries): 5 sets of 7, one of 10, one of 7.
bench press: 10 x 134, 6 x 150, 6 x 150, 5 x 150 (failed rep 6), pin press 134 (Swiss bar)
high incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 110

One good aspect

I am a bit down on my wife at the moment and the upside to that is that I have more time to write, though I really don’t have much of importance to say.

Workout wise: I was scheduled to walk hard, indoors, but elected two commuter pace walks (2 miles, 4 miles) instead. It was gentle and help me get some demons out. And it got me outside.

Ok, I might make a math post later but for now, here goes: someone I know posted this meme:

Frankly: this meme is illogical. It is entirely possible for a country to import both a lot of poor immigrants who need help AND a lot of highly skilled immigrants who take high paying jobs. Doing one does NOT preclude the other.

And, well, immigration is a touchy subject, and with good reason. The very poor ones DO eat up resources. The low-skilled ones compete for jobs and sometimes, the competition is not a fair one (though we can blame employers and lax labor law enforcement for that). Then there is the issue of assimilation: sometimes immigrants bring their customs with them (e. g. loud gatherings in residential areas).

And no, these issues are NOT new; they’ve been around for a long time.

Now let’s look at the upper end: yes, importing outlier talent can be a big help. I even see that in sports: my favorite baseball team has a LOT of international players. But an issue can arise: are we importing top talent as the expense of failing to develop existing home-grown talent? That is a genuine issue.

Let me point out that I have no good answers. I think that a well thought out immigration plan can help our country and also be a way of fulfilling a humanitarian mission. I do not know the proper level or the proper mix. I believe that good people can think about these issues in good faith and reach differing conclusions.

And the last day of the semester is here…

I’ll keep my workplace comments private.

I’ll keep my personal life comments private as well.

I’ll talk about football: Navy got the Liberty Bowl and so we are going, or at least it is “we”, for now. Tickets and room are set: Cincinnati (now a P4 team) is the opponent. It should be a good one!

I’d love to go to the Music City Bowl too (Dec 30 in Memphis) but I don’t think that I can pull it off. I’ll be happy that I can make one of these.

There was some controversy: ND was left out of the playoffs (and I can understand why…Alabama was left out last year) and so ND will stay home. Texas was disappointed too (they did beat A&M, soundly) but they will play Michigan in the Citrus.
Personally: I’d like to see an FCS model: every conference sends one team (at least) plus at large bids. 24 teams would work, and there would still be bowls for the other teams.

Workout notes: yesterday: usual weights: pull ups: 5 sets of 6, one of 10, 2 of 5. bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 150. High incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 115, 5 x 110. 2 mile commuter walk.

Today: 10k walk on campus. First mile was 15:41 but I still averaged 14:45 (1:32:06 for 6.24). Mostly good footing..but yes, this was much easier than my usual course.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

I feel as if I could sleep for a year.

Walking: 2.1 mile commuter walk (somewhat slippery)
Saturday: 8.3 miles (8.04 Garmin, 8.6 Strava) Basically 14:55 mpm walking on campus. Lots and lots of loops on mostly snow free, ice free walk.

Sunday (today) 4.2 miles at 16:46, BEFORE some deadlifts.
Weights: Friday: pull ups; 7 sets of 6, one of 8
bench: 10 x 134, 5 x 150, 4 x 150, 10 x 134
high incline: 10 x 94, 4 x 115, 5 x 110

Sunday: wagon wheel: 10 x 200, 10 x 230, 10 x 250

I watched a couple of Bradley Basketball games: the men (predictably) blew out Northern Illinois. The women (predictably) blew out Chicago State.

Football: I watched Illinois St. at North Dakota State. NDSU scored on long pass on its first play from scrimmage, and I thought “the rout is on.” They also got a quick punt return for a TD…and intercepted the Redbirds FIVE times (one pick six, one run inside the Redbird 5). The Redbirds had two drives inside the 15 result in zero points.

And of course, THEY WON 29-28!!!!!

Tu, W, Th

Oh boy, is it slick. Good old ugly Peoria.

Walking: Tuesday: 4.1 miles on the treadmill, 14:40 pace (treadmill reading had 4.6, Garmin had 4.0)
Wednesday: 45 minutes on slick, icy surfaces. Yuck.
Today: 41 laps of Markin (mostly inner lane) in 1:08:44 (13:45 pace). My “unofficial” miles were 13:52, 13:07, 12:59, 12:53, 13:10, and a bit extra. These were 8 lap “plus a bit” times.

Weights: on Wednesday, I did a complete weight workout.
pull ups (sloppy) 5 sets of 6, bad set of 8, 2 sets of 6

Bench (Swiss) 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 150
High incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 110
Wagon wheel dead 3 sets of 10 x 200

Bradley Basketball: it was cold but I went to the Washington State at Bradley game. WSU lead by 4-8 for most of it, but BU caught up at 60 with 1 minute left in the game and won by 64-60. BU shot poorly (save one player) but got a ton of turnovers. It was a gritty win.

A tale of two games

We (Jacob and I) drove from the hotel to the stadium; Tom met us there. My goodness, was it eerie.

The game: well, it snowed during the first half and they only allowed fans in the club section and in the lower West side section and in the club sections.

The game went sort of quickly. Illinois drove but failed on downs. Northwestern drove and kicked a field goal. That was almost the first quarter. Illinois responded with a touchdown drive to go up 7-3. Northwestern drove and went up 10-7 hitting a pass in the back of the end zone.
Illinois stalled..punted with just under 2 minutes left in the half, but Northwestern threw an interception (tipped ball). That lead to an Illinois touchdown and a 14-10 halftime lead.

The Illini stopped the Wildcats in the second half and appeared to take control of the game. But a good drive ended with a field goal.

Northwestern continued to make mistakes. But then came the play that changed the game: Northwestern got a strip sack and got the ball at the Illinois 1. So on first down:

On 4th down, the Wildcats took a deliberate “delay of game” penalty and then kicked the field goal.

After that, the only score came when the Illini kicked a field goal. It was only 20-13 but that appeared to ice the game. Northwestern turned it over 4 times, the Illini only once. And that, plus the goal line stand, made the difference.

It was an unforgettable game played ..almost like on the moon, with lots of big plays.

We got back to the hotel late, but got a good start to Indianapolis. The roads were fine there.

We watched the Texans beat the Colts 20-16. While it was true that the Texans benefited from a questionable pass interference call:

Colts fans also complained about an extra point, but it appeared to me to be good (it did hook outside the upright as it passed.

The Texans struck first with a field goal. In the second quarter, the Colts scored on a nice pass to the left but missed the extra point. The Texans drove a scored a TD to take a 10-6 halftime lead.

Another nice drive lead to a 13-6 lead, but the Colts tied it at 13 with another passing touchdown.

The Texans took a 20-13 lead with a rushing touchdown, and the last score came with a Colts field goal with just under 9 minutes to play. The defenses took over from there and the Colts failed on downs with just over 2 minutes left. This allowed for the Texans to pick up one first down and then run out the clock.

So..this was quite the weekend of football.

What am I complaining about?

This has been a trying week. Let’s just say that, well, there was the fiasco of getting out of the parking lot at Indianapolis (but getting IN was easy), and B breaking her foot in the hotel room. The drive back: rough…not bad weather, but when we got back to crappy old Peoria, the porch was buried..the city had buried the walks and entrance to the drive way under blocks of icy snow.

Love it: pay taxes to local government so they can make your lives worse.

Workout notes:

Thursday: nice 8.2 miler at 16:32. Slow, but kind of hilly.

Friday: weights and a 3.2 commuter walk.
Saturday: 5K walk around the hotel..two “squares” and a spur. We had left on Friday night.

Sunday: pushing B in a wheelchair. She would not let me use the stadium ramp.

Today: weights only; had to run B to the doctor: her lung doctor and then the walk in clinic where she got seen for her broken foot.

The weights: 7 sets of 6 pull ups and one very bad set of 10. I was not into it.
Swiss bench: 3 sets of 10 x 134
Wagon wheel dead: 3 sets of 10 x 200
high incline: 3 sets of 10 x 94

That was better than no workout.